Table of Contents

• Bitcoin

• Google

• Reddit

Top Stories Today

Economy & Finance

Bitcoin

Bitcoin surged past $99,000 for the first time, nearing the $100,000 milestone, driven by optimism surrounding a potential Trump presidency and expectations of crypto-friendly policies. The rally, fueled by increased futures market activity and short liquidations exceeding $100 million, highlights strong investor momentum. While some crypto-related stocks declined, Bitcoin remains up 130% this year, with analysts predicting further gains amid market excitement and broader macroeconomic factors favoring the cryptocurrency.

Technology

Google

Alphabet's stock dropped 4% following a Department of Justice (DOJ) proposal for Google to divest its Chrome browser, aiming to curb Google's dominance in search and online advertising. The DOJ's aggressive antitrust measures, part of a long-standing bipartisan case, also suggest restrictions on exclusionary deals with third parties and internal product preferences to foster competition. The remedies target Google’s alleged monopolistic practices, including leveraging Chrome’s data for targeted ads. While the DOJ deemed an Android divestiture unnecessary for now, it left the option open. Google criticized the proposals as excessive, claiming they could harm privacy and innovation, and plans to appeal the monopoly ruling.

Reddit

Reddit resolved a brief website outage on Thursday, marking the second disruption in two days. Over 72,000 user reports highlighted the issue, which the company attributed to instability caused by a recent update. Repairs were completed within an hour, with Reddit confirming operations had returned to normal. The outage was unrelated to Wednesday's disruption, which stemmed from a bug in an earlier update. Reddit, with over 97 million daily users, has faced multiple performance issues this month but has acted quickly to address them.

Thanks for reading, subscribe to The Standard Lens for more.